by Dave and Michelle Youngs.
Shape Makers is one of a large family of dissection puzzles which challenge students to assemble a series of smaller shapes to form larger ones. Tangrams, which gained popularity in the early 1900s, are perhaps the most common kind of dissection puzzle. In Shape Makers, four squares and eight triangles must be reassembled to create a large square, a large triangle, a parallelogram, and a trapezoid. While the main task is fairly simple, it has many possibilities for more challenging extensions.
The second student sheet provides some of these extensions, showing three additional irregular shapes which can be created using the 12 puzzle pieces. Once students discover how to make these shapes, they are challenged to create some shapes of their own and record them. These student-created shapes can be traded with classmates so that students can try to solve puzzles that their friends have created. This gives the students more ownership of the puzzle and gives extra incentive to try and create a shape that will stump others in the class.
PDF version (152 K)
I hope you and your students have fun solving this puzzle and creating some shapes of your own. If any of your students discover especially creative shapes that can be made with the pieces, send us a copy of their work and we will try to print it in a future issue of the magazine. If you have any questions or comments about this puzzle feel free to write us here at AIMS*P.O. Box 8120*Fresno, CA 93747 or by email: meyoungs@fresno.edu or dyoungs@fresno.edu.